CHOOSE.

Waikato Independent, Volume V, Issue 325, 17 January 1907, Page 3

CHOOSE.

God Doe« Not Impose Arbitrary wad Unreeis on-able Command*, Bnt Set* Before U« Facta. . The Bible does not impose upon, us arbitrary and unreasonable commands. It sets, before us facts, and invites us to decide with enthusiasm for one alternative or the other—for God will have, no lukewarm service. In view of the awful temptations and the noble opportunities vvith which every life abounds, it says to every man who has ears to hear: “Choose.” A glance at any concordance, says the Sunday School Times, will show how often the Bible presents us with the thought that God makes choices. Choice is one of the highest, exerdstis of tha rational nature, and the divine command to choose — such a command as was urged by Moses and Joshua, by Christ and Paul, by all teachers and leaders who have felt the everlasting importance of life’s issues—such a command can dishonor no man. It* assumes that vve are rational beings, who were not made to bt driven, but who can examine and decide for ourselves.

The power t-o choose, which lifts us above the brutes, is a power that we exercise ail too seldom. Most lives are neither conspicuous' successes nor brilliant failures, junt because men so seldom arrest themselves and make some deliberate, resolve.. The mistake which blights so many lives is, not that they make a definite choice of evil, but that they never choose at all. Too seldom do men look alternatives honestly In. the face. They do not choose, they drift. You could almost count up on the fingers of your two hands all the men you know who. have ever made some great and sc 1 emu choice which has seriously shaped their subsequent career. How many could tell why they are in this trade or profession, and not in that; in this church, and not in that? We are where we are, often, simply because onr parents, or some other of the powers that be, put us there. So far, that is right; we must receive our start in life, from others.. But, as we love God and our own eou/s, we. must not stand there; we must learn to choose for ourselves, ami not drift into the other world with the helplessness of the beasts that perish. ,

Numberless, things of the highest moment were determined for us before ever we saw the light. We did not choose our parents, our family, our country, our language,' our religion, our social station, the sphere within which our friendships, are possible or by which our education is limited, We stand, as it were, within a charmed circle, across; which we often feel we cannot step. If we move at all, it is only, like the prisoner, to walk to and fro and round and round. Yet God has so made ns that it is in our power to choose the greatest things. Onr path may sometimes seem to be tracked out for us before ever we begin life’s journey; we may seem to be sternly compassd about by necessity, yet" God’s word to every man is “Choose.” And woe to him who stops his ears and allows himself to be borne onward every day r earer and nearer to*a goal which he has never once looked straight in the face! Nor need our choice be a blind one. It is to be made-in the light of our .experience. God asks no man to choose without giving Him facts to determine his choice. We cannot look over our little lives, still less over the expanse of history, without- choosing for God. if we choose at all. Do you not see how your life has been molded bv Divine fingers? how the disappointment which a few years ago you felt sure would crush you has opened up for you other treasures of undreamedof happiness, which would have been forever sealed had God then given you your own foolish way? Do you not feel that the bereavnurnt which seemed to bury your own heart in the grave of your dear dead has brought you after many days a peace, and even a quiet joy, which you never knew before? Your past is written all over with the finger of God; it is in the light, of ail that that you are to make your choice.’ The God who bids you choose is the Gfid who helps you

to choose, who , "Prom our mother’* arm* Hath blessed us on our way With counties? gift* of lore, I And still is-ours to-day.” i Anu the time to choose is to-day. (To be continued).